=== TC RESOLUTION STARTS === 1. The Debian Technical Committee hereby exercises its power in 4.2(1) of the Debian Constitution to propose the following General Resolution: ----- GENERAL RESOLUTION STARTS ----- Constitutional Amendment- TC Supermajority Fix Prior to the Clone Proof SSD GR in June 2003, the Technical Committee could overrule a Developer with a supermajority of 3:1. Unfortunately, the definition of supermajorities in the SSD GR has a fencepost error. In the new text a supermajority requirement is met only if the ratio of votes in favour to votes against is strictly greater than the supermajority ratio. In the context of the Technical Committee voting to overrule a developer that means that it takes 4 votes to overcome a single dissenter. And with a maximum committee size of 8, previously two dissenters could be overruled by all 6 remaining members; now that is no longer possible. This change was unintentional, was contrary to the original intent of the Constitution, and is unhelpful. Therefore, in the Debian Constitution amend A.6(3) as follows: 3. Any (non-default) option which does not defeat the default option by its required majority ratio is dropped from consideration. 1. Given two options A and B, V(A,B) is the number of voters who prefer option A over option B. - 2. An option A defeats the default option D by a majority - ratio N, if V(A,D) is strictly greater than N * V(D,A). - 3. If a supermajority of S:1 is required for A, its majority - ratio is S; otherwise, its majority ratio is 1. + 2. An option A defeats the default option D by its + required majority ratio if: + (a) V(A,D) is strictly greater than V(D,A); and + (b) if a supermajority of N:M is required for A, + M * V(A,D) is greater than or equal to N * V(D,A). The effect is to fix the fencepost bug. A 1:1 vote will need strictly more in favour than against, but an N:1 vote will need only exactly N:1. This will also have a (neglible) effect on any General Resolutions requiring supermajorities. For the avoidance of any doubt, this change does not affect any votes (whether General Resolutions or votes in the Technical Committee) in progress at the time the change is made. ----- GENERAL RESOLUTION ENDS -----